ATHENS, W.Va. – A stout defense coupled with an efficient offense led the Concord University football team to a 27-10 win over Fairmont State Saturday afternoon at Callaghan Stadium in Mountain East Conference play.
CU evened its record at 1-1, both overall and against league foes, while the Fighting Falcons dropped to 0-2 overall and in MEC play.
The Mountain Lions stymied Fairmont State throughout the game as the Fighting Falcons gained just 201 yards of total offense. The last time CU surrendered that few of yards was Oct. 19, 2013 against West Virginia Wesleyan when it allowed 181 yards.
Concord opened up the scoring as the Mountain Lions marched 62 yards on eight plays, and senior running back
Calvinaugh Jones plunged into the end zone for a two-yard touchdown.
It wasn't until the second quarter when the Maroon and Gray put together another long drive of 11 plays and 80 yards, but this time senior fullback
Shaun Workinger scored six for CU, making it 13-0 Mountain Lions with 8:46 remaining until halftime.
Fairmont State kicked a field goal as time expired in the first half to give Concord a 13-3 halftime edge.
Out of the halftime break, the Mountain Lions forced one of five FSU punts on the day, and capitalized with a touchdown by sophomore running back
Jamal Petty, extending the lead to 20-3. The drive was highlighted by the longest pass of the game from junior quarterback
Brian Novak to sophomore wide receiver
Jermeil Douse for 49 yards.
Once again, the Mountain Lions forced a three-and-out and put together another long drive of 11 plays with Jones scoring his 24
th career rushing touchdown and his second of the game to run the score to 27-3.
FSU rallied with a late touchdown in the fourth quarter to put the final margin of victory for Concord at 27-10.
But on this day, the defense ruled as it limited the Fighting Falcons' offense to 58 yards on the ground and 17 of those came on one play. Senior linebacker
Austin Dotson led the effort with nine tackles. Meanwhile, senior defensive lineman
Ervin Moore recorded seven tackles and his 16
th career sack.
Senior defensive back
Jocorey Robins joined Moore with seven tackles. Senior linebacker
Brandon Martinez had four stops and a team-high 2.5 tackles for loss that totaled 10 yards in negative yardage.
Offensively, Jones finished the contest with 20 carries for 62 yards and two touchdowns. Freshman quarterback
Justin Cogar ran for 32 yards on six rushes and Petty gained an additional 31 yards and a score.
Through the air, Novak was 10-for-13 as he found seven different receivers on his completions. Jones and Workinger hauled in two passes for 41 and 11 yards, respectively.
For the Fighting Falcons, quarterback Cooper finished the game 19-for-29 for 143 and found wide receiver Fabian Guerra for FSU's only touchdown.
The Mountain Lions head to Urbana 12:00 p.m. next Saturday.
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